Hero
Complex

The
wannabes of Mystery Menmake for some
low-flying summer entertainment.

by
Coury Turczyn

The
usual problem with super hero movies is that they're entirely predicated
on pure hokum. Let's see some guy parades around in a skin-tight
bodysuit and foils bizarrely named criminals with super-human powers
yeahhhh, right. No amount of special effects, art deco production
design, or name actors can overcome the huge pill of stupidity an adult
viewer has to swallow in order to suspend disbelief. Really, the only
smart thing to do is to make fun of these silly concepts, which seem to
consume millions of dollars and the attention spans of countless post-adolescent
adolescents.

Which
is exactly what Mystery Men does to fine effect, parodying the
familiar clichés of the super hero universewhich means it'll
probably only appeal to those very same post-adolescent adolescents since
they'll be the ones getting the jokes. Nevertheless, even non-geeks should
appreciate the multi-million dollar special effects, the art deco production
design, and the name actors.

In
fact, Mystery Men gathers one of the most eclectic casts in recent
memory: Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo, Paul "Pee-Wee"
Reubens, Geoffrey Rush, Lena Olin, Tom Waits, Hank Azaria, Greg Kinnear,
Eddie Izzard, Wes Studi, and Pras (from The Fugees)all in one
movie? It's a miracle the script doesn't collapse from the sheer effort
of trying to give each actor enough lines to warrant a credit. Astonishingly,
however, not only were all the actors well cast in their roles, but they
obviously had fun with themthe real pleasure in Mystery Men
is seeing the cast members overcome their hipness (Stiller and Garofalo),
their reps as "great" actors (Rush and Macy), or their own oddball weirdness
(Izzard, Reubens, and Waits) to play cartoonish goofballs.

And
there are plenty of goofballs to choose from. Set in the bustling metropolis
of Champion City (another beautiful rendition of Blade Runner's
Los Angeles, crossed with Batman's Gotham), Mystery Men exists
in a world where super heroes and super villains are just a matter of
course. The biggest hero is Kinnear's Captain Amazing, a blow-dried, super-tanned
celebrity whose jet-equipped muscle suit is encrusted with corporate sponsor
logos. His biggest problem is Champion City's scarcity of villainshe's
so good at fighting crime, there aren't any criminals left to earn him
the big headlines. Worse, his sponsors are starting to pull out. Thus,
he conspires to free his most diabolical nemesis, Casanova Frankenstein
(Rush), in order to prop up his career. Unfortunately, Frankenstein captures
him instead.

Enter
the Mystery Men, essentially a team of super hero wannabes with half-assed
super powers: The Blue Raja (Azaria), master of cutlery; The Bowler (Garofalo)
and her haunted bowling ball; The Shoveler (Macy), who's really good at
shoveling; Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchel), who can only turn invisible when
nobody's looking at him; The Spleen (Reubens) and his deadly fart jokes;
The Sphinx (Studi), who's really mysterious; and The Furious (Stiller),
who's a ticking timebomb of pent-up anger. Together, they must rescue
Captain Amazing and earn some respect; too bad they're all so dreadful
at their jobs.

Along
the way, Mystery Men gently skewers the tired clichés of
comic book stories, from the super egos of super heroes who think they're
invincible to the silliness of super villain shtick ("We're the Red-eyes!"
declares the leader of a gang of thugs wearing red glasses.). This isn't
an Airplane!-style parody, thoughthe gags are done with affection
for the genre they're ribbingand perhaps that's why there are no
truly guffaw-level bits in Mystery Men. While it's certainly funny
and well worth watching if only for the cast itself, the movie never seems
to take off into the comedic stratosphere. It genuinely wants to tell
a story instead of just stringing jokes togetherand while that's
admirable, it could've done a better job of presenting a real villain
for the rag tag heroes to overcome. Although Rush suitably hams it up,
his Casanova Frankenstein is not given much to do. He's got a castle,
cool henchmen, and a super-weapon, yes; but he doesn't have much of a
persona beyond some loose disco connection that's never very clear.

Nevertheless,
Ben Stiller manages to keep the movie pumping along by his own force of
comedic will. His Furious is a guy with a short temper who really wants
to be a bad-ass dudehis face reddens, his veins pop, and he blows
his cork with a howling rage and then not much happensno super
powers are unleashed. Instead, he usually gets clobbered (just like in
real life!). Stiller balances the character's tough guy stance with his
insecurities to create another in his growing line of winningly flawed
losers (such as the stalker in There's Something About Mary or
the adoptee in Flirting With Disaster).

Inventive
and visually striking as it may be, though, Mystery Men still could've
used either more jokes or more evil to overcome. But either way, it's
still something I'd rather see than Nicolas Cage as the caped wonder or
any number of Spidermen or Wonderwomen.